City To Review Development Impact Fees In Wake Of Boatworks Loss

The City of Alameda plans to review its development impact fees in the wake of a ruling in the latest long-running battle to develop the Boatworks project on Oak Street at Clement.

On Thursday, Alameda County Superior Court judge Frank Roesch agreed with Francis Collins and Boatworks LLC that the city, when calculating fees on the Boatworks project, violated the Mitigation Fee Act by including in park inventory calculations land that the city owned but, at the time of the calculation, weren’t, in fact, parks yet.

Development impact fees are fees paid by developers to fund increased public improvements and services necessary in response to the project.

The court further found that through an “accounting sleight of hand,” city officials also violated the Mitigation Fee Act by falsely characterizing “community open space” as a “park” in a key study, which resulted in a “false parks to population basis which leads to false conclusions regarding the amount of parks attributable to the projected growth of population.”

The Collins family has been trying to develop the parcel since 2005; the latest proposal calls for 182 units of housing.

A hearing is scheduled for January 20th for attorneys for both sides to argue how much relief, and the form, financial or otherwise, the Collins are due.